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Posted by David • May 12th, 2010 10:26:35 pm - Subscribe | Mood: giving | Music: FLOSS Weekly 117 - Bob Jacobsen

Here is a big thank you to Bob Jacobsen for spending his time, money, and energy for 6 years fighting in court for open source licenses.

quote:
A long running case of great significance to the legal underpinnings of free and open source/open source software (F/OSS) has just settled on terms favorable to the F/OSS developer. The settlement follows a recent ruling by a U.S. Federal District Court judge that affirmed several key rights of F/OSS developers under existing law.

The result? F/OSS has achieved a significant victory that will provide comfort to developers that their expectations will be satisfied when they contribute code to a software project. This is particularly significant for projects that adopt so-called "restrictive" licenses, such as the GNU General Public License, which are intended to prevent exploitation of the work of community developers for unauthorized commercial purposes.

All as a result of the determination of one model train buff to protect not only his rights, but those of the F/OSS community as well.

- consortiuminfo.org

So why is this important? Well these open source communities are the 'hobbyist' of thinkers, developers, and testers that believe in a project and make free software available to all of us. Consider donating to the project to assist in the $30,000 dollars of debt that Jacobsen incurred during these 6 years. He taken not only a second, but a third mortgage. (The third is nearly paid off) But finance is still owed on the second.

External links:

Donate to the JMRI Project
(click on the support this project button)

A Big Victory for F/OSS: Jacobsen v. Katzer is Settled

[AUDIO] FLOSS Weekly 117: Bob Jacobsen

Please consider donating to the project to help wipe Bob Jacobsen personal debt.

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